Glasgow getting set for winter with additional grit bins

More than 1600 “self-help” grit bins are to be placed in and around Glasgow as the city council prepares for the upcoming winter season.

A total of 1611 grit bins will be filled with untreated rock salt and allow members of the public to grit roads and footpaths outside the council’s priority routes. It comes as members of the council’s environment and liveable neighbourhoods committee agreed its “priority gritting” routes for 2023 to 2024 for carriageways, footpaths and cycle routes this week.

Priority one routes for carriageways will include public access roads, Buchanan Street Bus station, hills steeper than a one in 10 gradient and A or B class roads while priority two routes include local shopping centres, health centres, day care centres, community sports centres, libraries and places of worship. All remaining carriageways are deemed at a priority three level.

When it comes to footways, priority one paths, which will be gritted first by the council, includes access routes to schools, pedestrian precincts, prioritised city centre footways, shopping centres outside the city centre and hills steeper than one in 10 gradients. Priority two routes for footways is similar to priority two for carriageways.

Cycle ways are also to be gritted on a priority basis with the council’s main focus on London Road, and the National Cycle Network Number 75 that extends from Cambuslang Bridge to the Riverside Museum. The local authority is also working to deliver a replacement programme for small sized gritters and brine tanks, which will be delivered over the next two years to support footway and cycleway de-icing schemes.

During the environment committee meeting, questions were raised about how communities could obtain an additional grit bin.

Councillor Kevin Lalley said: “Is it easy to get a grit bin? Do we just ask for one? You did mention it was seasonal and I understand that they might get taken away again during the two days of July that we don’t need them.”

Councillor Lalley continued: “Do you keep records of continuously bad roads and bad areas? I am pretty sure there are continuous areas all over Glasgow that are always under pressure with road road gritting requirements. Do you pay more attention to that?”

A council officer confirmed that there would be one bin every 200 metres or so.

They said: “If there is an area where there are maybe elderly or mobility impaired residents, we can be a little bit flexible on that as we do have a large number of grit bins.

“You can apply online or write to me and I can have our teams see if it meets the criteria. If it does one will be provided. The new QR codes will allow residents to request a refill or replace a damaged grit bin.

“We do have records of bad areas for severe weather, generally it is the higher areas that can be more problematic, we’ve got Springburn, Easterhouse and Carmunnock, which tends to get the more serious weather sooner.

“We have direct contact with our operational teams, we can then provide situation reports to our directorate three times a day. We man it 24/7 and we can assess where to deploy our resources and we do have real time information CCTV cameras throughout the city.”